The gesture, long associated with the Hawaiian Islands and
surfing culture, promises to be widely displayed throughout the region
in upcoming months when about 190 Soldiers from the Hawaii Army
Guard’s 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team assimilate with Afghan
security force personnel.

The Guardsmen will comprise 16 security forces assistance
teams that will advise and assist both Afghan soldiers and policemen at
seven locations in Kandahar and Zabul provinces.

Their mission is critical as there is just a short time
remaining to ensure the Afghan army and police can sustain the
country’s security and security training once International Security
Assistance Forces pull out of Afghanistan in 2014.

“The goal of our mission will be to work ourselves out of
our job,” said Lt. Col. Paul Takata, the brigade’s executive officer.
“Our goal is to make the Afghan organizations we work with completely
independent and able to conduct operations completely on their own.”

About 10 percent of the 29th IBCT’s Soldiers are
participating in the nine-month deployment that began here at Kandahar
Airfield in early November with some final training classes before the
teams traveled to their final destinations

The entire brigade, headquartered in Kalaeloa, Hawaii,
includes more than 2,200 Soldiers. The security forces assistance teams
are each comprised of 9-12 senior officers, senior sergeants and
Soldiers with specialized military occupations.

“This will be a unique mission because every Soldier will
be a ‘doer,’” said team leader Lt. Col. Darryl Lindsey of Hilo, Hawaii.
“Lieutenant colonels will have to be crew-served weapon gunners and
sergeants major will have to be drivers. Every Soldier will have a
variety of responsibilities.”

The SFAT teams will prioritize a number of subjects and
topics in both classroom and field environments with their Afghan
partners, including infantry tactics, organizational management,
logistics and acquisitions.

The SFAT teams’ route to Afghanistan entailed far more
than an 8,000-mile airplane flight. The teams have trained full time
for the past five months and spent long stints at Camp Shelby, Miss.,
Fort Polk, La., and Fort Irwin, Calif., preparing for the deployment.

Lindsey said the southern Afghanistan SFAT mission is perfectly suited for a Hawaii Army National Guard brigade.

“Hawaiians are similar to Afghans in so many ways. We take
our shoes off at the door, like to talk about our families, and love
to sit down together for a meal, just like the Afghans,” Lindsey said.
“The cultural diversity of the Hawaii Guard is also an important
factor. It’s cultivated a mindset of mutual respect and reserved
judgment.

“The Aloha spirit is going to be present – it’s going to be a good rotation.”

The team’s desire to spread the Aloha spirit throughout
southern Afghanistan doesn’t lessen the realization that insider
threats will remain a serious issue throughout the deployment.
According to the Associated Press, more than 50 NATO service members
have been killed in insider-attack incidents in 2012.

“We participated in a lot of training and scenarios
throughout our pre-deployment training that focused on avoiding
green-on-blue incidents,” Takata said.

Before reaching each of its respective final destinations,
the 16 teams spent about one week on Kandahar Airfield taking final
marksmanship, driving and counter-improvised explosive device classes.
Once they reach their final destinations, the teams will spend about
one week with their SFAT predecessors learning the intricacies of the
duty. Once the overlap period is over, the Hawaiian Soldiers will be
solely responsible for advising and assisting the Afghan forces.

“We’ve been training hard,” Takata said. “We’re ready to get into our sectors and do our mission.”